Geshe Dhonam
Basics
Geshe Dhonam became a monk at Gomang College of Drepung Monastery in 1970 when he was 13 years old. In Tibet, Drepung, Sera and Gaden were the three great Gelukpa monasteries. At one time Drepung was the largest with 10,000 monks. When the communist Chinese invaded Tibet, many monks fled with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and, on the destruction of their monasteries in Tibet, rebuilt them in South India. It was the rebuilt Drepung in South India Geshe Dhonam entered as a boy. Over the 22 years he was at the monastery, he studied and passed all the major topics and attained the monastery’s highest qualification “Geshe Lharampa” in 1992.
Immediately after the exams, he was asked by the monastery to go to Buryatia, one of the newly established Russian states, to teach. Geshe-la was a resident teacher at a Buddhist Institute in Buryatia for eight years before returning to Drepung where he was then requested to come New Zealand and teach at Trashi Gomang Centre in Auckland. He arrived in time for His Holiness’s visit in 2002 and since then has taught regularly at the Centre and at Trashi Ge Phel Ling in Wellington. Geshe-la also teaches in Hamilton.
